Caption: Karl Benz. Karl Benz (1844-1929), German engineer, seen driving his third car in 1888. Benz (right) was the son of a railway engineer, and studied mechanical engineering during 1853-64. His first company was set up to manufacture machine tools, but by 1877 Benz was experimenting with two-stroke petrol engines. He produced his first car in 1885, and by 1893 was manufacturing four-wheeled automobiles under the name of Benz & Cie. Benz left the company in 1906, but it went on to merge with Daimler, forming the company which was to manufacture Mercedes cars.